1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to the field of data processing systems and in particular to improvements in the efficient distribution of audio messages within a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system which permits a user to distribute selectively designated pre-recorded messages in association with a primary message within a data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the advent of multimedia devices within data processing systems there has been an increased utilization of audio messages within such systems for communication. No longer must a recipient be present to receive such a message because, as is well known in the art, audio messages may be stored and selectively retrieved at a later time at the convenience of the recipient. For example, an originator's telephone message system and a recipient's telephone message system may be part of a common network which permits so-called "voice mail" to be exchanged. An originator utilization such a telephone system may transmit a telephone message in the form of a telephone call to a recipient which may thereafter be stored within the network and retrieved at a later date by the recipient.
In such systems an originator often sends multiple messages during a given time period which may contain common audio segments. For example, an originator's message may generally begin with a salutation such as "Hello, this is John Originator at extension 12345 in Product Development," and the message may contain additional repetitive phrases such as "the following message should be handled utilizing company confidential procedure 1A-2B3." Additionally, the ending of each such message may include the phrase "If you have any questions or comments please contact me at extension 12345 or at mail station ABC." Thus, upon reference to the foregoing those skilled in the art will appreciate that voice mail messages often include repetitive segments and that verbalizing each of these segments within each audio message is a high inefficient method of conveying this information.
Additionally, the originator may neglect to include some important piece of information regarding the message making it difficult for the recipient to ascertain specific information regarding the originator or that message from the message itself. For example, the originator of a telephone message may have forgotten to mention his or her name, department, message docket number, or other such desirable and often critical information thereby placing an often difficult burden on the recipient to obtain this information from outside sources.
Multimedia message systems known in the prior art can provide very limited assistance in solving this problem. For example, known multimedia message systems may provide the telephone number of the multimedia message system from which the message was transmitted and may also provide the name of the user if that name has been stored within the message system. However, such systems will not correctly identify the originator of a message if the originator is not known to the multimedia message system or if the originator is at a location not normally associated with that user within the message system.
Multimedia message systems known in the prior art also do not provide a method or system which permits an originator to prestore multiple audio segments of information in multimedia formats such as audio, visual or textual formats, in a repository such that these segments may be accessed at a later date and retrieved by recipients of messages from the originator through the utilization of an appended message associated with a primary message.
It should therefore be apparent that a need exists for a method and system whereby selectable audio messages may be stored by a user and selectively designated by that user for distribution to recipients in association with a primary message. The selectable audio messages may also be utilized to allow a recipient to access and retrieve pre-stored segments of information in multimedia formats such as audio, visual, or textual format.